


Sometimes the Cream is Cleaning a Dirty Droid

by jacquelee



Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Community: gameofcards, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-17
Updated: 2016-10-17
Packaged: 2018-08-23 01:44:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8308918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jacquelee/pseuds/jacquelee
Summary: Padmé's thoughts while cleaning R2D2 during Phantom Menace.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a challenge at [gameofcards](http://gameofcards.livejournal.com) for the prompt "the cat that got the cream".

Padmé knew that Sabé was not particularly happy with her decision to clean the droid, especially since she had been the one having to order her to do it for appearances sake, but she didn't care right now. 

Right here, in the cargo bay of the ship, doing hard physical work, she was finally able to relax. To think. After everything that happened, all the decisions she had had to make for her people, for her friends, for herself, she had been about ready to scream.

Only Rabé's calm smile and seeing Sabé holding up so strongly even though she was shouldering so much had kept Padmé from breaking character and endangering everyone even more. But when the opportunity presented itself to get away from everything, to be able to get a breather for a few seconds, she gladly took it. 

Cleaning had always been her way of dealing with stress. Her way of coping. When her hands were occupied with work that did not require thinking, her mind was able to deal with all the swirling thoughts in her head that felt like they would make her explode any second. 

There were so many questions still, but at least in the quiet of the cargo bay she could put them in order and deal with them one by one. 

What if her decision to go to Coruscant was wrong? Well, there simply hadn't been a better way. Staying on Naboo would have meant sooner or later being forced to sign a treaty that would ensure the enslavement of her people or to die and neither of those two options were acceptable. 

What if deciding on using Sabé as a decoy had put her best friend's life in danger? Not that it wouldn't be in danger without the switch, since as her bodyguard that was what Sabé had signed up for in the first place. And it wasn't like she was defenseless. 

Padmé herself knew very well how thorough the training all of the handmaidens had received was. No, it wouldn't be easy for anyone to kill Sabé or any of the other girls and the decoy tactic didn't really make a difference in the end, since at the end of the day all of them were in the same kind of danger.

What if they weren't able to get to Coruscant in the first place? And what if once there, she wouldn't be able to sway the senate to decide in her favor? What if war was inevitable? What if she had to watch her friends die? What if she herself would be killed?

Padmé straightened her shoulders and rubbed forcefully at one of the droid's particularly dirty spots. Then she shook her head, took a few deep breaths and sighed. 

Thinking about the future and how everything could go wrong didn't get her anywhere. 

So she took a few more breaths and concentrated only on the task at hand, sorting the thoughts that were actually helpful. Thinking about their next move. About their allies. Attacking the Jedi had been a wrong move by the Trade Federation and was sure to give her sympathy in the senate. 

And she wasn't about to count out her people either. They would succeed in driving the Trade Federation off of their planet, one way or another. She was sure of that. 

Slowly, with every stroke of the cloth, with every stain she removed, her brain also got less and less cloudy and messy. The tension that hadn't left her since far too long eased up a little and she was able to breathe easier again. Her optimism returned. 

When the Gungan came and talked to her about the day he had had, she felt the first genuine smile, even a bit of a laugh rise up in her since she had first heard about the Trade Federations blockade. 

Finally, she felt good again. At least for a few minutes.


End file.
